Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple—get a warrant.”

Photo by lorigoldberg Verizon Wireless customers in Washington are soon going to have precious little left to brag about to their friends with other cell phone companies. Metro today released the first part of its schedule for installing expanded wireless service in the system’s underground stations and tunnels. The new wireless network, the first phase of which will be completed by mid-October, will be able to be accessed by people who subscribe to any…

WMATA offers this update on the fate of three Metrobus drivers who have been under investigation recently. Two bus operators have been fired this week, according to Metro. The first is the driver who was arrested and charged with kidnapping after refusing to let a passenger off the bus during a verbal dispute. The second fired driver had been driving with a suspended license, which Metro only discovered after the operator got into an accident…

Photo courtesy Unsuck Metro DC Credit goes to the increasingly excellent local blog Unsuck DC Metro for the news that a Metrobus operator will soon be fired for talking on a cell phone while driving a bus. The web site posted a photo it obtained from a former Red Line rider named Brian who had, ironically enough, recently switched to riding a 63 bus from Takoma to work in the morning, just as WMATA…

We don’t normally fall for naked corporate promos, but a press release from Cricket, the no credit check/no contract wireless company (and, apparently, radio station?) that’s been heavily advertising all over town, caught our eye. In order to drum up some brand awareness in the D.C. metro area, the company says it has placed 2,000 wallets, most filled with discount offers, but some with actual prizes (including a free trip to New York) and,…

Amid calls for WMATA to fire a Metrorail operator who was caught texting while driving a Blue Line train, the transit agency has released a revised policy outlining a new zero tolerance approach to drivers who use their cell phones while working. Metrobus and Metrorail operators caught using a cell phone, texting or using a PDA while operating a vehicle will be fired immediately under the new policy, which takes effect Monday, July 13. Up…

WJLA/ABC7 reports that an unidentified Metrorail operator was suspended for five days without pay after a Metro rider posted a YouTube video of the driver that appears to show him using a cell phone to send an SMS while operating a Blue Line train. You can’t specifically tell what the operator is doing in the grainy cell phone video — he’s just seen looking down at something in his hands — but it was…

There had been some speculation about whether Jeanice McMillan, the Metro operator who lost her life in Monday’s Red Line crash, had been using her cell phone at the time of the collision, but Metro says she wasn’t, WTOP reports. “We know where her cell phone was — it was not on her. It was in a backpack,” Metro General Manager John Catoe said. Investigators have also reportedly found evidence on the rails at the…

Photo by Nivad Frustrating but entirely predictable update on Metro’s federally mandated cell phone service expansion plan from the Examiner’s Kytya Weir today. You’ll recall that as part of a $1.5 billion funding package passed by Congress last fall, Metro is required to expand cell phone service coverage to all major companies, including Verizon, Sprint Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile, to the 20 busiest underground rail stations by October. But of course as Weir writes,…